Editor's Comments

Walter J. Chantry


Every serious student of the Bible will be compelled to have a doctrine of election. The words 'elect', 'election', and 'choose' are found nearly fifty times in the New Testament in connection with a determination of those who are saved. Besides the actual use of such words, various passages address the same topic in different language.

Holy Scripture is abundantly clear that, 'when this passing world is done', multitudes of the sons of men will have eternal life and many others will perish. Ultimately these are the two great classes of humanity. At the great divide which separates them appears this word, 'elect'.

As information is assembled from the numerous passages of the Bible using these words, many basic lines of definition become clear:

Who does the electing? It is God, the intelligent, holy, just, and loving personal Spirit who made heaven and earth.

To what are men elect? It is to salvation, holiness, adoption, etc.

When were they chosen? They were chosen from the beginning, or before the foundation of the world.

On what basis were the elect distinguished from those who perish? It is not because of anything elect sinners are, nor because of what they do. It is based upon considerations found within God himself.

Few at the time of conversion are aware of God's having elected them. It is most often later that Christians realize that God's choice set in motion the grace which they afterward experienced. When their eyes are opened to the truth of election, it is a never-ceasing source of wonder, of amazement and of heart-satisfying contemplation.

Some think they see sinister threats in the teaching of sovereign divine election. Yet, who ever came to love someone, and then protested that the object of his love had loved him long before he returned that love? What new admirer of another has complained that the object of his love worked at length and at great expense to win his love? Thus our Lord speaks to his people who have a relatively recent love for him: 'I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you' (Jer. 31:3).


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